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Wednesday, October 31

Happy Halloween!

I don't have any great ghost stories to share, or terrible Halloween happenings to pass on. And Halloween isn't my favorite of holidays, although it isn't my least fave, either. It's one of those in-between-ers for me. When I was a kid it just wasn't all that important - primarily because of religion but also because my parents didn't see the point in spending a lot of money on a costume that would be worn once, and only for a few hours. So I was the typical sheet-ghost or, one year, a roller-girl (my old roller skates and a tennis outfit).

I always wanted to have a great Halloween story to pass along - a ghostly occurrence or something. We definitely had the house for it: we lived in an old Victorian just outside our little town. The story goes that two brothers owned the land in that area and each built his own house. They kind of mirrored one another but our house was the nicer of the two - or maybe, after the brothers died, ours just had more historically minded owners. But what always intrigued me the most were the secret rooms.

Yes, secret rooms. There was a stairwell inside one wall, leading from the attic to a door hidden behind the kitchen pantry. There was a trap door under the foyer floor, leading to a closed in room with an under ground exit. And there were rumors that, at one time, that exit led to the stables. And in the stables was another tunnel - leading across the road to the brothers' home and stables.

I always figured anyone with enough secrets to need those kinds of rooms and escape routes had to have some big, bad secrets. And the ghosts to go along with it. So every Halloween - heck, anytime I was home alone, really - I'd wait and wait and wait to see...something.

But all I got was weird creaking of boards. 'Settling' they called it. Was that a ghost? I don't know...

Oh, your house sounds like such fun! I don't like Halloween much either, but do remember one party we gave when the kids were in elementary school. Living in the country make Trick or Treating a challenge, so each of the kids invited some friends and I asked sisters-in-law to help chaperon and we had a party at the house instead. It was so much fun that when parents dropped their kids off, the parents stayed too and we ended up with something like 40 people and half of them were adults. :-)

Oooh...your house sounds like a great place to grow up! Love the hidden staircase.

I don't really have any ghostly stories either. The first house my hubs and I bought and renovated was a huge old 100 year old house. Lots of huge rooms and places that looked like they should be haunted. There was even a cistern (creepy) and in the basement was a trap door in the floor which led to a small room filled with sand. My father in law told us what it was for at one time, but I don't remember anymore. But I do remember my hubs sticking in hand into all that sand and searching around...then of course acting like he was being pulled in to get a reaction out of me. lol Too funny!

That sounds like a great house for a mystery to be set! When was the house built? With that kind of knowledge, I'd be digging into the history of the building.

My ghost story may have something to do with my obsession to write about the Nez Perce.

Junebug(my horse) and I were on a usual summer ride. No saddle, I was barefoot and laying backwards on her back with my head pillowed by her quarter horse rump, staring up at the sunlight filtering through the aspen leaves and pine boughs. Junebug snorted and stopped. Her body quivered and she looked to the right. I turned my head that direction as I rose to a sitting position and that's when I saw him. A warrior on an appaloosa, a staff in one hand. The horse turned and they disappeared into the trees. A chill trickled down my skin and I urged Junebug toward home.

I'm a lifelong intuitive and have had interactions with spirits as far back as I can remember. Growing up, our house had regular spirit visitors, and as a kid that was pretty scar. As an adult, I realize they communicate needs through acting things out, like their deaths, painful aspects of their lives, or even parts of their lives that were pleasant.

Paty, I love your experience! Horses and cats are among the most ultraperceptive animals. If they refuse something, it's likely best that we should, too.

That house sounds great. I love a big spooky house with secret rooms. The stories I would have come up with if I'd lived in a house like that! The closest we got to a secret room was in the attic. At the back the floor didn't go all the way to the wall. I still think if went to the back of the attic and went down that opening it would lead to the basement. But we never tested it out.

When I build my dream house it's going to have secret rooms and lots of tunnels. :)

The first house my husband and I owned was haunted. Things disappeared. Toys squeaked all by themselves in empty rooms. An older gentleman would wake me up in the middle of the night. And a little girl in a green dress, about four years old, would run through our basement. Neighbors would see her playing outside at night then disappear through the walls back into the house.

Since we moved the house has been torn down and I often wonder if the ghosts were freed or are now haunting the new house that took its place.

I would have loved to live in that house! I love spooky stories and my most recent "weird" event happened about 2 yrs ago. My daughter and I were walking through the Target parking lot and she stopped and looked at a car and said, "Mommy, that girl doesn't want to stay in the car."

Um, there was no girl that I could see in any of the cars, and my daughter was just 4. I shrugged it off, but later the same week when hubby was out of town, I slept on the couch. I remember opening my eyes late at night and seeing a balloon from my daughters playroom float across the ceiling and go down the hallway to her room.

I was so sleepy it didn't hit me until morning what I "think" I saw. I jumped up and found the balloon down the hallway in my daughter's bathroom on the floor. It wasn't a helium balloon, so it shouldn't have floated anywhere by itself.

I told my mom who is a big believer in ghosts - not a weirdo, I promise - and she said we probably brought a ghost home that wanted to play with my daughter.

I was working late on the computer at my husband's work one night. His office space was in an old house on a military base that had a reputation for being haunted. It was late, I was the only one there. Suddenly I heard a door open upstairs. And I shut that computer down and was out the door in like 1 minute. I never went back at night. :)